Learning Costly Resistance From Dietrich Bonhoeffer

CHRISTIAN CENTURY – Cheap resistance is like cheap grace. It risks very little… In Maria Schrader’s 2016 biopic, Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig argues that “every gesture of resistance which is void of either risk or impact is nothing but a cry for recognition.” This is a useful bar to set for ourselves. Do our gestures of resistance accomplish anything other than making ourselves feel better? Do we protest just so that we can have great pictures on our social media feeds, or are we actually willing to risk something for the good of our neighbours? Cheap resistance, after all, is like cheap grace. It means very little. It might make us feel better, at least for a little while, but it won’t do much to help the people who really need it. But if we are willing to risk some of what we have been given for the sake of others, then we are willing to pay a cost. This is costly resistance.